Category Archives: deep dive

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Song of the Day #6,253: ‘Streetlights’ – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Jason Isbell’s sophomore album was released two years after his debut, in 2009, and marked a break from his Drive-By Truckers past. Rather than utilizing backing musicians and producers from his former band, he formed his own quartet.

Named the 400 Unit after the psychiatric unit of a hospital in Florence, Alabama, the band would be credited on most of Isbell’s future recordings. And they would help shift his music away from his Southern rock roots to a more folk rock/Americana sound. He named the album after the new band, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

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Song of the Day #6,252: ‘Brand New Kind of Actress’ – Jason Isbell

A month back, I promised a deep dive of singer-songwriter Jason Isbell’s catalog, and starting today I’m making good on that pledge. Over the next two weeks I’ll feature tracks from all ten of his solo albums.

Isbell got his start with the Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers. He was just 21, 15 years younger than the band’s founders, when he came under their wing as a protege and signed on as their third guitarist. He spent six years with the band, contributing on three albums as a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, before going solo in 2007.

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Song of the Day #5,893: ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’ – Barbra Streisand feat. John Mayer

Following Love is the Answer, Barbra Streisand’s last 15 years as a recording artist have been unremarkable. She has released just four studio albums during that time, along with several live albums.

2011’s What Matters Most was a tribute to the songs of her friends, lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman. In 2014, Partners was a collection of duets with male singers. That album did well enough to spawn 2016’s Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, which found Streisand singing show tunes with such unlikely collaborators as Melissa McCarthy, Antonio Banderas, and Alec Baldwin.

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Song of the Day #5,892: ‘Where Do You Start?’ – Barbra Streisand

I’ve noticed a pattern when digging into the catalogs of major artists. They all seem to have a burst of activity for the first decade or two before tapering off. Maybe it’s because they’re too comfortable to put in the hard work, or perhaps their muse has just run out.

Barbra Streisand is no exception. After averaging more than an album a year for the first 23 years of her career, she hit the brakes. After The Broadway Album in 1985, she released just four more albums before the turn of the millennium.

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Song of the Day #5,891: ‘Not While I’m Around’ – Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand’s output slowed down in the 80s. After averaging more than an album a year since the start of her recording career, she waited four years after 1980’s Guilty to release her next one.

That was Emotion (1984), a return to the middle of the road pop material she put out in the 70s. The album sold decently but earned a collective shrug from critics. Streisand decided it was time to go back to her roots.

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